When you just HAVE to divide your phal or it's goin gto die!

I thought I'd share this informative post regarding phalaenopsis "division" or in this case, an attempt to save a deteriorating plant.

The following orchid (see pic) is almost 20 years old and before division, spanned about 20" across and a foot high. It was a nice specimen plant often blooming on 5 spikes at once. However, being potted "forever" in the same pot, last summer, I noticed most of the plant leaves becoming limp and "shriveled" or "veined" due to drying out so I knew the roots must be bad (and they were).

Here is what I did to save the plant and produce more clones:

1-I carefully took the plant out of the pot and trimmed all dead/dying roots.

2-With sharp sterilized cutters (using a flame or bleach), I cut the orchid in about 2 equal parts. I really wanted to save the top so I kept as many live roots on the top half as possible when determining where to cut.

3-I dusted with ground cinnamon all open wounds, and re-potted both halves into fresh damp New Zealand sphagnum moss, making sure there is adequate draining (foam packing peanuts).

4-misted the plant on occasions when the moss would start to dry out and left in a warm, brightly lit spot.

It has now been almost 4 months since and you can clearly see new healthy leaves and roots on the top half of the plant (left) as well as 2 keikis (circled in red) on the bottom cut half (right). The bottom half will eventually die off but may end up producing more keikis before doing so. One is a basal keiki coming directly from the cut half and the other is a spike keiki from a healthy dormant spike that happened to originate on the lower half.

So that's it! I'm happy I acted before the plant was too far gone...now I have 3 plants and if all goes well, I will keep them potted together to form a nice specimen clump.

I hope this helps!

Cheers from Canada

 I'm hoping to get her blooming again soon!

Keiki hormone paste

This node was already swelled when I applied the paste so may end up producing more blooms instead of a keiki.


This node was totally undevelopped (flat) at the time of application. At 3 weeks post application, one can already see the swelling or growth of tissue that may form a keiki .

This is my second attempt at producing keikis on phalaenopsis using Keikigrow hormone paste. When the hormone is applied to the nodes on a phalaenopsis flowering stem, small plants called keikis are induced to grow. These keikis are exact replicas (or clones) of the mother plant.

Here the paste was applied at two different nodes, one which already had signs of growth before application (growth that would likely have resulted in more blooms). The second node had no active growth at the time of application. Once can already see the development of some tissue which will hopefully form a keiki.

Keiki formation induced by crown rot

One year old keiki in bloom!


Doritaenopsis : keiki (baby plant) attached to mother plant (larger plant).


Mother plant showing crown rot.

Thought I'd share some pics of my doritaenopsis keiki that formed as the result of the mother plant succumbing to crown rot. The keiki flowered at about 1 year of age while still attached to the mother plant. I am hoping when I remove the keiki that a second one will from from the mother.